


A Dream in Blue

by Scytale



Category: Arthurian Mythology
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, M/M, Prophecies, Retelling, Space Horror, technomagic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 13:57:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19906837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scytale/pseuds/Scytale
Summary: Lancelot follows Arthur to Caer Sidi.





	A Dream in Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gloss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gloss/gifts).



Lancelot dreamed of his mother.

He stood by her lake. She was in the violet sky and the black sand at his feet; she was in the humid air that wrapped around him like an embrace and his reflection staring back at him from the water.

She said, _Do not go to Caer Sidi._

Lancelot shook his head. “Arthur is going.”

The wind hissed disapprovingly around him. _Caer Sidi holds nothing but death. You will not find what you are seeking. Come home, and Arthur will die there and need nothing._

Vines came from the water, wrapping around his arms and chest. Their tips caressed his cheek and stroked his hair, as they had when he was a boy who lived by the lake that contained his mother's heart. Back then, the only two people in his world had been himself and his mother, who was the world.

His world had widened since those days.

“But I would still need him, Mother,” he said.

The vines paused.

Arthur didn't matter to her. Nothing that wasn't of her planet did, but she loved Lancelot. The Ancients had created her to regulate the planet's systems and to safeguard its residents, and he had been born here, when the spaceship Benoic had fallen from the sky. She cared about his wellbeing, even if she didn't always understand what it was that a human needed.

“He's important to me.” he said. “If Caer Sidi is so dangerous for both of us, help me.”

_There is no helping either of you if you go._

The vines sunk back into the water. The wind stopped and the waters stilled, and Lancelot woke, to the darkness of his quarters and the sound of Arthur's breathing.

* * *

"Tell me we'll win," he said to Arthur later, sitting up in bed.

Arthur looked up at him with sleepy eyes. "When have you ever doubted that?"

"My mother prophesied that we'll fail in Caer Sidi," Lancelot said. "There's nothing waiting for us but death there."

The sleepiness left Arthur's eyes. He sat up, shaking his head. "Your mother understands the Ancients' technology and probabilities. But she doesn't understand humans, so her predictions are off."

He took Lancelot's hand, tracing his thumb over the lines of Lancelot's palm. "We have the three finest ships and best crews in the Outer Reaches. We've dealt with Ancient technology before. We have Excalibur. And we have _you_ , Lancelot, the best raider in the Outer Reaches."

"We don't know what we'll find there," Lancelot said. "No one who has entered it has returned." 

"And we've defeated so many other impossibilities." Arthur kissed him on the lips then, wrapping his arms around Lancelot. "Prophecies only come true if you let them, Lancelot."

He smiled at Lancelot. In all those years, his smile hadn't changed; it was as bright and confident as it had been when it had drawn Lancelot away from his mother's lake and to the stars, when they had both been young enough to believe they would never die.

"We'll take the Cauldron, and we'll be rich and immortal at the end of this," Arthur murmured. "Believe me."

And Lancelot let Arthur chase his doubts away.

* * *

The gaunt, ghost-pale sentinels outside the fortress claimed many of the raiders. More were lost in the the halls; some were swallowed by the shifting corridors, while others wandered into the darkness, babbling about the music they heard coming from the darkness. At the center of Caer Sidi, they found a banquet table laid with delicacies from seven star systems, and those who ate never left their seats.

Three ships full of men set out for Caer Sidi, drawn by the promise of riches and immortality; seven men returned. Gawain, Gareth, and Gaheris, their faces wan. Bedevere, limping, and Kay, silent for once in his life. Last were Lancelot, grim-faced as he supported Arthur, and Arthur himself, who looked like he'd aged a decade.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for this prompt, Gloss! I really had fun playing around with a space AU and (not really arguably) sentient technomagic.
> 
> This was inspired by the poem "Caer Sidi" in the Book of Taliesin (and the Heather Dale song, "The Prydwen Sails Again", which was the first I heard this story).
> 
> Title is sort of taken from "Dream in Blue" by the Stray Birds.


End file.
